Embodiments of the present invention refer to a receiving stage for receiving a receive signal and to a method for receiving a receive signal.
A receiving stage is typically included by a receiver, e.g. a communication receiver or radio receiver. All types of radio receivers have the purpose of converting the information carried by the radio waves to a useable form, e.g. an audio signal or a (digital) data signal. Such wireless receivers are typically coupled to an antenna for receiving the electromagnetic wave or the RF signal (radio frequency signal).
The receiver typically comprises a receiving stage and a mixing stage arranged between the receiving stage and the antenna. The mixer stage has the purpose of performing a downmixing of the RF signal and to output an IF signal (intermediate frequency signal) to the receiving stage. The receiving stage may comprise an amplifier for increasing the IF signal amplitude and a demodulator for recovering the desired information, for example a bit sequence, based on the IF signal.
Typically the amplifier is adjustable in order to provide different amplification gains so that a weak signal, sent by a transmitter having a long distance, is more strongly amplified when compared to a strong signal, sent by a transmitter having a small distance. A state of the art approach for adjusting the amplification gain is to provide a so called automatic gain control (AGC) which is configured to adapt the gain of the amplifier as long as the signal output by the amplifier is out of a predetermined signal strength. However, the adjustment of the amplification gain by using the automatic gain control takes time. Therefore, it cannot be guaranteed that a short signal sequence (short data telegram) may be received especially in case of signal strength changes (strong to weak or vice versa). In other words, a short data telegram could be missed. Thus, a repeated transmission of the telegram is necessitated. Thus, there is the need for an improved approach.